Monday 13 June 2022

Another Church Holiday

 Another long weekend. Monday 13th is, in the Orthodox church, the commemoration of the Holy Spirit or in Greek, Agio Pnevmatos . Also known as Pentecost Monday.

The island is full of Greek visitors once again. The big hotels are full.  Heavy black SUVs fill up the narrow streets and block the roads where they spill out into the traffic trying to park . 


It's a reminder that for the next three months we will be in high tourist season. Most exams end, and schools close, this Wednesday, on the 15th and it's 'lets get out of the city' time. 


It's a church holiday but except for those in the extended family with an abiding faith it's hardly noticeable. Government  services, banks and local offices are closed but the supermarket is doing a roaring trade. Yachties seem to be stocking up en masse with bottles of water, beer, gin and chips 




In Piraeus (port of Athens) there's an important service at one of the big churches, with military band


And Navy escort for the parade of the icon

We were up early for some business downtown before the crowds, moderate Poros size crowds, came out to annoy us.  We couldn't avoid them entirely.  One car parked at an alarming angle, right across the street, held up traffic while the driver jumped out to get a bottle of water at the kiosk. He got the Greek finger and a few swear words and not only from the hubby.  Further down a young girl held up the cars so a bunch of quad bikes could turn into the main road.  Quad bikes have no right of way.  I know.  I have one.  We are on the lowest end of the traffic scale, just before bicycles and pedestrians. Beware of taxis, trucks and city-slickers. 




We managed a coffee with family, right across the street from our 'big' supermarket where the yachties were stocking up on essentials



We fed sesame roll to the chirpy little sparrows till the big guns flew in

And then sped off to our home harbour



18 comments:

  1. That ain't no sparrow it's a pigeon. See what you mean by big guns.

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    1. The sparrows did get a few crumbs but they were soon driven off even though we tried to shoo those darn pigeons.

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  2. We used to call the pigeons that visited our garden Jumbos as they looked like 747s coming in to land.

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    1. They're certainly Jumbo's compared to sparrows.

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  3. Oh, the crowds of summer! It seems they flock to holiday places on purpose to upset the locals :)

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    1. You got that right lol. Pity our kids need them to earn some money

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  4. Ok, I gotta ask ~ what is the Greek finger? Is it the same as “the finger” everywhere else? Haha

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    1. It's the same though as Angela notes down below its usually the whole hand. Means, or meant once upon a time, curse you.

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  5. Is the Greek finger a whole hand full of fingers and a palm? Lol
    How do you get any work done with all those holidays? Wish I could came and live in paradise, except I know come winter it will be cold. Enjoy all the tourists invading your space
    Just remember they’re adding to the economy Hopefully that will help

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    1. Yep, the whole hand, palm forward, sending them some negative energy, usually with a 'nahh, malaka'. Of course a polite and civilised lady like me would never do that, Not to their face anyway.
      Yes, we do need them. And they provide some interesting people watching.

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  6. I had a look at the Make.Do.Grow pages. It reminded me of me, back in the 70's!

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    1. Breakin rocks
      In the hot sun
      We dug the earth
      And we won.

      Well, now you can pat yourself on the back and admire your accomplishments. They have accomplished a lot but its not time to sit back yet.

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  7. And a pleasant day was had by all (inconveniences aside). F walked into our local corner store about 5pm to find all the staff standing around eating ice creams.

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    1. It was a pleasant day. We got up early, did what we had to do and enjoyed those early hours without crowds.

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    2. Bet your corner store people had no customers all day. They were all here on Poros, or Aegina

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  8. It's one of my pet peeves when someone can't be bothered putting their car in the right place, we call if asshole parking, excuse the language, once in a while someone takes a photo and puts it on one of the local community pages for all to see

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  9. Sounds like a good time to stay at home away from the crowds!

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  10. Greece would be a country I'd love to visit but I"m guessing you need alot of patience for the tourists if you live there. At least they will be gone when Summer ends.

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